Open Source. What makes Android shine out from the rest of the crowd is its being open source. This attracts many programmers and developers from all walks of life, as Google freely distributes its source code for the Linux kernel and other publicly licensed code for anyone who wants to contribute to the development of the software. In short, programmers and developers alike can easily whip out their own versions of Android custom-tailored whatever pleases them.

Applications. There’s an app for almost every situation, and since its inception, Android primarily focuses on enhancing user experience with the use of applications. With hundreds of thousands of apps in the Android Market, users will be overwhelmed by truckloads of apps that easily integrate with the Android OS to cater to their needs.

= =

Hardware. In terms of hardware, Android by far has the most numerous choices of smartphones to date. Mobile phone manufacturers like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, and Motorola offer customers a wide variety of smartphone choices to choose from. Android is flexible enough to run on almost all smartphones as long as it matches the minimum requirements.

* *Software. When it comes to software, Android can run multiple apps at the same time as it has swap-space management–a luxury that not all mobile devices support due to hardware limitations. It also has ActiveSync built in natively, which allows you to easily synchronize contacts, mails, and personal information once the device is paired to a desktop computer. BlackBerry on the other hand requires some installation of software and a server